Saga of the TechPriest
by Chake99
Summary: I don't want to give anything away so just read it. I promise you shall not regret, but if you do I'll give you a cookie. You CAN'T LOSE. Ongoing story, C&C welcome.
1. Prologue

Prologue 

_"Aww... c'mon!" Said the young man trying desperately to keep the conversation from dying. The two attractive girls across from him glanced around the hive-world bar disinterestedly before both standing up and leaving._

_"Nuts," said Jak placing his head on the table while gesturing for the waiter to give him another drink, quickly downing the one he had. He placed his hands on his temples groaning softly. He had been awake for more than 48 hours with only beer and bad pick-up lines for company. The beer was spiked to keep drinkers awake. Sleeping customers weren't paying ones. _

_If he wanted it easier he should have gone farther down, Jak realized, to the under-hive, but then he'd be lucky to not end up with a knife in his back, a bullet in his skull and a dependency on a drug lord's latest concoction. _

_The thump of heavy boots was heard at the door. Another man entered, his words resounding through the cramped bar. "I am an officer of the Imperial Guard, and I am currently under oath and orders to gather men so that the will of the Emperor may be better..."_

_"Bloody hell," Jak murmured to himself before stumbling, half dragged after the officer through his drunken stupor, the sound of a dozen disgruntled men being marched at gunpoint ringing through his diluted consciousness._


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter I 

The Tiberus screamed through the warp, all windows shielded to protect the crew from the horrors it contained. 

"Heretic." Jak put his lowest card on the table, starting the round. The sounds of eating and talking filled the mess hall, the noise nearly palpable. Silently the person to the left put a mutant down. The turn like some tangible entity jumped clockwise around the table. PDF Trooper. Space Marine. Titan. After a dramatic pause, Jak's neighbor placed a Solar Mecharius on the center of the table. 'Pass' muttered Jak under his breath dropping his cards on the table before standing and leaving without another word. 

The corridors were nearly deserted. Jak headed back to his dorm, the door opening automatically as he spoke his name, recognizing his voice. Jak crashed on to his cot. 

"Hey Jak." It was Ian. "How was you morning," asked Jak. 

Despite the administration's desires, economy occasionaly dictated soldiers share dorm rooms with troopers in different platoons and on different rotations. 

"Dismal.. combat training..." Ian paused before continuing "Were you aware there are Sisters of Battle on this Ship?" 

"by the warp..." 

"Well if you see one don't insult... hell if anyone ever says I fight like a girl I am taking it as a compliment. I'm so bloody bruised from combat training with them I can barely move, wonder why I'm not in the mess hall? Those girls are beasts at combat. They're smoking hot too, but only a fool..." 

Grinning as he ignored Ian's continued ranting which was now on the topic of his failed advances on the Sisters, Jak picked up a data pad and began to read, it had been fairly easy to get clearance to read the non-classified parts of the ships archives, all it was was instruction manuals for different trooper types against different enemies as well as weapon logs. Then again perhaps it was just because servitors were programmed to be polite when met with an unfamiliar question... 

A familiarly obnoxious voice blared over the intercoms "The 355th Conscript Platoons Pi, Rho and Sigma wanted in the parade hall immediately. Repeat Pi, Rho, Sigma; Parade hall; IMMEDIATELY!" 

"Guess that's you," said Ian grinning. 

Jak scowled as he jumped off his cot, quickly pulling his uniform over his clothes, not bothering to properly change. He desperately picked up his lasgun and pack before barreling, ducked, out the scarcely open door. 

The corridors had suddenly filled with people who were sprinting to their rooms to get their things. Jak moved quickly in the opposite direction, dodging flying passersby. 

The parade hall was nearly empty but Jak took his assigned place, lifting his Lasgun into vertical position, fingers avoiding the crude sight he had constructed with two pieces of wire cut from his rank (or lack thereof) pin which was now sewn on. 

The rumble of many running feet echoed throughout the room as three blocks of men formed, facing the sealed window which projected images of real space. The angry yells of drill sergeants were occasionally punctuated by wimpers of troopers who were deemed to "not be moving fast enough." 

Jak swallowed nervously. 

Suddenly all was silent, the three blocks of men standing perfectly still. Jak did too as a heavily built man in a great-coat entered the room. Glancing around the room, a look of obvious distaste breaking over his face, he began yelling. "SO you scum sucking low-lifes! I, Commissar Hallick have been named to make sure you conscripts die in the name of the Emperor! And don't worry... I will." 

Jak shuddered. He didn't want to die. 

The commissar continued "You damned conscripts are headed for Tentrynon, there is a stranded Tyranid force there and your orders are to contain it with your charred and bloody corpses, if necessary, until some real soldiers arrive! Do I make myself clear?!?" 

The Commissar's face was clean shaven, and as hard as stone. His only trapping of authority was a small pin on his buttoned up great-coat, and a sword slung to his side, but his power echoed through his every action. Here was a man who would get his way, who would bend other men to his will or break them. His every movement seemed premeditated and driven by incredible power. 

The commissar nearly screamed "DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?" 

Jak whispered "yes." The Drill-Sergeants were the only ones who yelled. A half-hearted chorus hesitantly rang through the hall from most other Guardsman. 

The Commissar slowly approached the closest soldier who was cowering before him. "Yes you, you misbegotten, scum-eating, bottom feeding hive dweller, why did you not say yes? Did you not understand what I was saying?" 

"Sir," the soldier began slowly and quietly, Jak strained to hear him, "I did understand you but I am not sure that I wholly agreed..." 

With a speed doubtfully matched by lightning, the Commissars sword left its scabbard and was in the air. The Guardsman's body fell quickly to the ground, followed closely by his head. 

Silence reigned. 

The Commissar spoke again. "To live where one's death would serve the Emperor is of the darkest blasphemy. This man, may the Emperor have mercy on his eternal soul, has just been saved from that blasphemy, and has hopefully saved others here as well. You will be taken to the depths of hell itself. If you fight you will probably die. If you run you will most certainly die and so I swear by the warp and the fearful denizens it contains if you run you will also face eternal damnation." 

The commissar grinned 

"Make your choice." 

"Your Platoon sergeants will relay your battle-orders, we will be leaving the warp and landing shortly." The Commissar paused for a second and looked around. "What in the warp are you waiting for? A personal invitation from the Emperor himself? get out of my sight! All of you!" 

Jak caught some of the Commissar's murmuring as he turned to leave "Have to do the bloody speech half a dozen more times, damned under priced parade hall, if I could get my fingers around the neck of the bureaucrat who down-sized..." 

Jak ran quickly out the door and headed towards the practice range, a large group following him. The rest had headed to the chapel. 

With every stride four words flashed through Jak's mind. I want to live. It pounded through his mind on every stride, drowning his other thoughts with sheer intensity. The Emperor and Mankind be damned, he wanted to live. 


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter II 

In the distance the rumbling of heavy weapons could be heard. 

Jak took a swig from his canteen and quickly sealed the lid, leaning against the side of the trench. Rob and Arnold were playing cards, Dill was keeping watch while the platoon leader Guy checked his bolt pistol's cartridge. Jak made sure his bayonet was tightly on his lasgun for the dozenth or so time. 

Dill turned around. "umm... some people are coming." 

Everyone hurried to the opposite trench wall. Jak caught a quck glimpse of five marching men, carrying lasguns and wearing standard issue guardsmen cloaks. 

Guy was the first to speak. "What is you platoon designation?" The men simply began walking faster. "Who is your commanding officer?" Guy yelled. 

The hood of one of the approaching men fell down revealing a grotesque and twisted face. "Genestealer hybrid..." the foremost stranger leapt forward, lasgun falling from his arms, impaling Rob on claw-like hands before he could finish his final yell. The rest sprinted forward. 

Jak back pedalled and pointed his gun at the beast's head. It was human in shape but the skin was white and slimy, and its mouths housed multiple rows of pointed teeth. 

Jak squeezed the trigger. The face charred and disfigured and the hybrid crashed to the muddy trench ground. 

Men from farther down the trench in either direction swelled in. The hybrids leapt down into the ditch, talons scything wildly. 

It was an eternity of blood, gore, steel and claw. A hybrid's head exploded from bolt impact, showering blood and shattered exo-skeleton on those nearby. Nearby a man fell to the trench floor a gash across his throat muddying the ground in showers of crimson blood. A man wrestled with a hybrid only to be cut down from behind, he crashed to his knees as his mouth moved to words never to be utterred. The air was thick with flying blood, falling limbs, and the stench of burning tissue. 

Jak stabbed a hybrid in the mid-section, and then kicked the still struggling xeno off his bayonet, to be trampled by the raging battle. Another one charged knocking aside Jak's lasgun and toppling him to the ground. Jak looked up fearfully at the dreadful enemy. Suddenly the hybrid crashed to the ground, revealing a young guardsman holding a shaking lasgun. 

Jak leapt up and reentered the fray swinging his lasgun like a club. He continued to fire, stab, swing, and yell, attacking hybrid after hybrid, until he stood panting and sweating, and the trench was empty of enemies. 

Jak leaned against the trench wall. "How many left?" It was Guy. "aye.." said Karj. Jak echoed after him. "bloody hell" whispered Guy. Jak looked downward, the entire trench floor was carpeted in corpses, Sigma platoon had been wiped out with three exceptions. Jak shuddered. So this was war. Each of those mutilated bodies had lived ordinary lives before the conscriptors came, and now they were gone, never again to tread upon the soil of an Imperial planet, never again to sing to His glory, never again to return to their homes and to greet those they loved. 

Jak strode across the trench. trying to avoid stepping on the disfigured faces of those he knew, and struggling to suppress the scream that was building inside his throat. 

So this was war. 

In the background Guy was yelling into the vox-caster "this is Sergeant Guy, Sigma platoon, we have taken extreme losses, reinforcements are necessary to hold the perimeter..." 

Jak peered above the trench "Emperor's blood..." 

A horde of gaunts were charging across the muddy plain 

Before Jak knew what was happening the three were sprinting away to the second line. Guy screamed into the vox-caster "We've got a bleepload of Gaunts, forward perimeter breach at one-five oh-five, repeat one-five oh-five..." Guy dropped the vox-caster and began running faster. 

Blood-crazed flesh-borer beetles whistled through the air around them. 

Jak's lungs ached for more air. Twisting he could see the nightmarish forms of the closest gaunts through the dust cloud thrown up by their fell feet. A flesh borer-beetle launched by a termagaunt screamed by his ear. Jak turned forward and pushed harder, his feet pounding against the dirt below him. Beside, Karj fell his body wracked by violent spasms, a bloody hole visible in his side where one of the dreadful beetles had burrowed. "Go.. on" he coughed between vomits of blood, struggling to lift his lasgun to fire at the enemy for a last time. 

Jak continued to run. The second line was now in sight. It was only a matter of getting there. Jak wheezed as he sprinted onwards, his sides growing tighter with every step. 

He stumbled into the trench. "welcome soldier," said Ian, lifting his lasgun in a mock salute. Jak could only nod faintly as he crumbled against the far wall. 

The Guardsmen in the trench rushed to the wall, lifting their lasguns into firing position, opening fire on the advancing horde. Shooters and clawers crashed to the ground only to be trampled by their own surging line while the fell beetles whistled through the air above the trench. 

Guy hefted himself up on his lasgun and joined the firing line. Struggling Jak followed suite. His sense of terror numbed, Jak shot into the Xenos feelinglessly, taking aim and firing, replacing his power-cell every eternity or so. 

And still they came, they scampered over their dead, shooting their blasphemous weapons and brandishing their bloodthirsty talons.Their numbers were ever replenishing and they would still crawl forward even with half their limbs boiled away to a bubbling mess, dragging themselves on their remaining arms, intent only on destruction. 

For every Gaunt killed the next one came a foot farther, and slowly but surely they were advancing across the plain. 

And still they came. 

They were almost upon them now, Jak could count the rows of teeth in their mouths. 

Suddenly, the voice of the Commissar cut above the din of battle "Servants of the Emperor!" he roared "the Enemy is Legion, but so are we!" 

Jak changed his lasgun's power-cell. 

"The time is come for his judgement! Let all prepare to meet his unflinching gaze! For mankind! For the Imperium! For the Emp..." the commissar stumbled back from the edge of the trench, a blody hole in the middle of his face; but it mattered not, where he faltered, dozens now took up the cry "For the Emperor!!" It rang all along the trench. "For the Emperor!" yelled Jak squeezing the trigger of his lasgun. "For the Emperor!" cried an unnamed dying soldier hefting his lasgun to shoot one final time. They were Legion. They were the children of the Light. They were the hammer with which the Emperor would smite the darkness, and They would not be Broken! 

"Death to the Xenos!" rang across the line as the Tyranids fell upon the trench, leaping through the maelstrom of las blasts. 

Jak incinerated the head of a flying termagaunt, before tightening his bayonet and impaling the neck of the next one. Nearby the head of a guardsman went flying, propelled by the vicious swipe of a hormagaunts claw. 

The air was heavy with flying blood, human and xeno, and thick with the shrieks and screams of the fallen. 

And still they came. 

Jak's world was reduced to scything talons and the movement of his own bayonet. Around him gaurdsmen fell, mouths frothing blood, the trench grew shallower and shallower as the dead piled up. 

Nearby Ian crashed to the ground, a gaping wound on his side, pouring blood onto the muddy ground on which he lay. Jak pushed his bayonet through the flank of the offending gaunt, before turning to more enemies. 

And still they came, leaping into the trench and onto screaming guardsman, apathetically crushing their own dead into the dirt as they tried to tear all living apart in their vicinity, sacrifices of biomass to the hive-mind. 

Jak knew he was doomed. 

Suddenly shapes were thundering down from the sky as if on wings of fire, forms obscured by the sun shining behind them. They fell into the trench twin-pistols blazing, gaunts exploding in showers of magenta blood. Seraphim. 

The remaining Guardsman let out a yell and attacked with renewed vigour, while the holy flamers of the Daughters of the Emperor purged the enemy. 

Jak was both in awe and fear of the arrivals, these were the Sisters of Battle, the Daughters of the Emperor, the Angels of His will. 

And the enemy came no more. 

Quickly the remaining gaunts were wiped out, then as promptly as they came, most of the Seraphim blasted off, jet-packs hoisting them into the air on trails of flame and smoke. 

One who had stayed behind was now going from body to body scanning for vital signs. 

"Do you agree?" murmured Ian, blood-crusted lips moving slightly. 

"Yes" said Jak thinking how quickly the Sisters of Battle had wiped out the Tyranids, "I do." His gaze wandered to the shapely Seraphim medic. Jak smiled. "On both counts." 

Jak wandered away, trying to find Guy, or what remained of him, mind dwelling momentarily on Karj, whose trampled and twisted body would now lying alone on the plain, along with any gaunts he managed to shoot down. 

Jak turned to look at the broken form of Ian who the Seraphim medic was now leaning over, scanner at hand. With one swift movement Ian wrapped his arms around her pulling to the ground and kissing her on the lips. 

The Seraph pulled away quickly raising her bolt-pistol, but glancing at her scanner, walked away. Jak smiled bitterly. Ian had been Ian to the last. 

Among the pile of torn and bloody dead lying in the trench, one body had a small smile upon its face. 


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter III 

The sun had fallen and the million stars of the Imperium of Man shone in the sky. Jak sat near the fire alongside Guy, with a half-dozen other survivors of the attack. Sergeant Pliken was talking, his face illuminated by the flames and his voice only contesting with the low hum of the vox-caster as Ram scanned frequencies. 

"The commissar is dead, and, according to Ram here," Ram nodded at the mention of his name "the perimeter has been breached at several other locations" there was a pause before he continued saying "We succeeded in delaying the Tyranids enough to expel the need for Exterminatus, as more troops will be making land-fall tomorrow. Thus," he continued "our duty done, we should be concerned about saving our own skins. Cause being the only vet'ran here, I'll tell you something, there's not a god-damned soul in the universe that'll mourn it other than you." 

"Now there's a bloody good idea!" yelled Darce, a young guardsman, between sips from his canteen of a liquid Jak guessed to be alcoholic. 

Pliken began talking once again. "I don't know what you guys are going to do, but I'm leaving for those hills over there" he gestured with his lasgun "and company would be mighty welcome." 

"Well," said Jak "I wanna live the night so I guess I'm coming with you." 

Guy quickly followed "I'm coming too." 

"Good," said Pliken. "Anyone else?" All the hands of those who had not yet spoken rose, except one man, who was just hugging his knees shivering. Jak had tried to talk to him earlier, he was already gone, his body was perfectly fine but his mind had cracked under the pressure of the battle. 

"Excellent," said Pliken, counting the hands "Darce, Ram, Kirt, Aldrin... may I suggest we go and forage as much food as possible before we leave? Let's meet back here in 15." 

"Extra equipment might help too," said Jak "power-cells, grenades, first aid; all good." 

Slowly the circle broke up as the guardsmen left in search of supplies. Jak went back to the trench and began fishing through the corpses for supplies, trying to resist the urge to hurl. 

Fifteen minutes later seven companions set off towards the hills leaving the trench behind them. Jak had four salvaged lasguns strapped to his back, a power knife strapped to his hip, as well as some food. Aldrin walked beside him, a mutilated blood-covered arm hanging limply by his sides, as he groaned softly. 

Jak broke the silence. "Beetle?" Aldrin nodded. "Still inside your arm?" Jak continued. Grimacing Aldrin nodded again. "So..." said Jak, "do you want to live?" Aldrin looked at Jak like he was crazy "Well then," said Jak slowly, hand moving to his scavenged knife. "Flesh-borer beetles secrete poisons as they rot, at least according to the manual, so are you willing to lose an arm?" For a while Adrin's face was impassive before coughing a single word from his parched throat "yes." 

Jak's knife flashed upwards through the starlight cutting through flesh bone and then air. Aldrin bit his lip until his chin turned red. Jak tied a piece of cloth around the stump which was spurting blood. "Raise it above your head, it will help the bleeding." Aldrin, still biting his lip, raised his arm. 

They continued to walk towards the distant hills, dimly lit by the stars and the light of Tentrynon's many moons. They seemed no closer then they were when the party had started marching, but the trench behind too now seemed far away. Jak reckoned they were halfway there. 

Jak searched the stars for familiar constellations, and found most of those he knew, but many of the shapes were skewed, some gaps wider then they should have been and some narrower, many did not even look like what they were supposed to look like at all anymore. Jak wondered what the people of Tentrynon had named their constellations, and what stories they had subscribed to them. 

They were almost there, the ground was getting rocky, and the hillside could now be seen to be covered by boulders, and dotted with small caves. The group began walking into a valley between two of the large hills, the ground covered with their many shadows cast by the different moons. Jak ran forward hoping to see some cave suitable to spend the night. The small band marched in silence. 

The stillness of the night made the sudden scream behind them even louder. Jak spun around counting heads. Aldrin was gone. "Guys..." the disbelief in his voice was evident "we've lost Aldrin." Pliken was the next to speak "Damned spookies." Jak froze for a second, the memory of the data readouts, flashing across his mind. "You don't mean to say," Jak began slowly, "that we have a Lictor?" 

"Damned right we do." 

"...bleep" Jak could think of nothing else to say. 

Darce was the next to speak, "Now what, in the name of the Emperor's teeth is a Lictor?" 

"A lictor," said Pliken bringing his face close to Darce's, "Is a Tyranid creature that moves so fast, it is invisible, wherever you look for it, it's already gone. It can taste you in the air, it can smell which way you are facing; it can kill you before you are even aware it's there. I was on Andromus against Tyranids, a single lictor wiped out three green platoons in a jungle environment. These were platoons at full strength, and the lictor just picked them off one by one, until they were all xeno-meat." 

Pliken backed off, peering around the darkness of the valley at the assortments of rocks rock formations around the surrounding hill-sides, as if trying to see the lictor peeking out at then. "Few things short of the Emperor's intervention can save us now." 

The group began looking around uneasily. Kirt broke the silence. "We're going back." 

"That," Pliken conceded "is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. Firstly, the plains will be a-run with gaunts before dawn, and secondly the spooky could get us on the way out." 

Jak was still stunned "There has to be a way..." "Wait." he said struggling to recall everything he had read in the days of the star voyage, "Ram, does that vox-caster use radio-waves as a carrier?" 

Ram nodded "yep, it's as antique as they come." 

Jak was talking quickly now "Could you set it to strobe all available frequencies with white noise at maximum power on signal?" 

Ram thought for a second before nodding slowly "I think I could" 

"The Lictor has advanced senses, it sees all electromagnetic wavelengths, including infrared, UV, and Radio. Hopefully we could blind it, Emperor willing with the vox-caster." 

"I'm on it" Ram was now kneeling, twirling dials and pressing buttons on all sides of the vox-caster 

"It will never work," said Darce despairingly. 

"No, it probably won't" Said Jak grimly staring Darce in the eyes, "but if you have a better idea let me know." 

Soon Ram was standing again, and the group began slowly inching forward, all eyes peeled, probing the night, struggling to see the hunter that could see them as if it was daylight. 

"There... never mind," it was Darce. 

"What was it?" Asked Guy 

"Ah, nothing, thought I saw something by that rock over yonder" said Darce pointing with his lasgun. 

Jak nodded to Ram. 

Ram flicked the switch. 

A sudden roar, reverberated through the stillness of the night, and a Lictor towered above the small band of guardsman, shrieking in pain, standing behind the rock Darce had gestured towards. Jak fell on one knee and began pumping his trigger furiously, Guy and Ram did the same. Pliken pulled out twin laspistols and began firing furiously, smoking scorch marks began appearing on the Lictor's scaly hide. 

Quicker than lightning it leapt through the air and was on top of Darce, the blood and flesh of whom flew out in all directions. Kirt charged, brandishing his bayonet and impaling the creature's flank, acidic blood spraying over his now bubbling skin, Kirt fell away moaning in pain. Jak fired at the base of the creature's neck, which was now incandescent with the heat. Faster than Jak would have thought possible the beast was rushing forward on all limbs towards him, Jak hurled himself to the side as the monster thundered past him, managing to cut off a swiping limb with a quick movement of his knife, before kneeling and preparing to shoot again. 

Ram, Pliken and Guy formed around Jak, firing wildly at the quickly moving Lictor which was racing around, over, and behind nearby rocks, it climbed on top of one and then began to charge again, the band of guardsmen scattered as it hit, but it turned on Ram severing a leg and trampling him, Guy shot his bolt pistol till the cartridge was dry, but the bolts ricochet off the beast's smooth exo-skeleton, while Pliken stabbed in with his bayonet puncturing the armour and bringing magenta blood on to the dark star-lit ground. Jak dodged as it charged at him and then pushed sideways again, and rolling across the top of the beast, thorny skin scraping holes in his skin. Jak, brought down the power-knife, again, and again, and again, until the beast slowed, its charred and punctured form sinking to the ground. 

Jak fell on to the ground panting, hearing the sounds of heavy boots on gravel as Pliken approached. Jak was lifted upright. "Good job kid, wouldn't have guessed you had it in you," he murmured into his ear, as he ran his hand along Jak's side checking for broken bones and wounds. "You seem fine, stand back up and let's get going again." Jak grunted and began walking to where Kirt, Guy, and Ram now were. Guy was standing over Ram. 

"He's in bad shape, but I think could live." Said Guy 

Kirt was leaning against a rock the left half of his face totally disfigured. Pliken once again seemed to take command. 

"K, Guy, you will give Ram a shoulder to lean on as he walks with one leg, Jak you can take a look at Kirt, I'll go ahead to see if I can find a decent camp" 

Jak approached Kirt, his left face had become wrinkled and leathery while his eye had shrunken up into a smoky grey dried up ball. "So how you feeling?" Kirt groaned, rolling his eyes, or the one eye that would still respond to his command. 

"We better get moving" Jak urged again, extending a hand. Kirt grabbed it and pulled himself up, his face twitching in pain as his mutilated skin moved, rubbing against himself and the coarse grain of his uniform. He began walking hunched across the rocky ground, Jak followed beside him, feeling like he would have to catch the bowed figure before him if a sudden wind knocked him over. 

"I'm fine, go help with Ram," Jak eyed him dubiously. "No really I'm fine! Really," Kirt croaked, while stumbling over a rock. Jak shrugged and headed to where Guy and Ram were making slow progress. 

Jak lent Ram his shoulder, and Ram continued to hop, balancing with his arms on Jak and Guy, his way after the quickly moving Pliken. 

The night was dark, but not so dark you couldn't see your footing, Jak watched the ground as he struggled up the hillside. 

Pliken gestured from way up the hill "We'll make camp here!" Jak increased his rate, soon he stumbled into the cave alongside Ram and Guy. 

A while later, Kirt came in. 

"Well" Pliken began, "I'll take first watch, and when I begin to fall asleep I'll wake one of you up for the next watch, and so on and so forth. You guys better get some sleep." 

Look for a smooth part of the cave, Jak sat down beside Guy. "So," said Guy, "when you left home, did you ever think it would be like this?" 

Jak shook his head sideways. "I always thought that it would somehow be cleaner, more... just less..." Jak shuddered as the images of the dead from Epsilon Platoon flashed across his mind. "You know what I mean." 

Guy nodded silently. "Wonder where Karj and Darce are now?" He pondered aloud. 

"It would be nice to think they're with the Emperor now, in eternal peace." 

"Do you?" Inquired Guy. 

"I dunno... wish I could. And I hope they are." 

Guy paused for a second. "You understand how lucky we are to be here?" 

Jak nodded, something suddenly stuck in his throat. 

"Out of so many people..." Guy continued beginning to stammer "only we made it, the rest..." 

Jak tried to speak, but he couldn't, stuck in his mind was the image of the trench piled to the brim with the bodies, many still moving and crying, and screaming for the mercy of the Emperor and their families. And he would step in their mouths and on their chests, crushing them with his heavy boots, as he struggled to fight the enemy. 

"Make me a promise Jak," said Guy quietly. "The fact you will never get any chance to complete it makes no difference. 

Promise me that if something happens to me, and if you somehow live through this, and you become rich, you will return home, and tell my family what happened to me. Hive-level 5 Room 266854 that was." 

Jak was stunned for a second and then began "Err... how the hell could I possibly..." 

"It doesn't matter!" Cried Guy. "Just... just promise me." 

"I do." Jak replied, realizing there was little else he could say. 

"Thank you" said Guy, suddenly relieved as if some great weight had been lifted off his chest. "It means a lot to me." Guy suddenly lay down and began trying to sleep. Jak moved over and attempted the same. 

Ian's dried lips moved slowly, the skin being pulled taut over his skeletal face "Why?" his voice creaked like an old wooden door on rusty hinges "Why did you leave me? Why..." 

Gaunts began to chew on his torso as he began to shriek in pain. 

It is only a dream. 

The Seraphim stood grimly as the would-be deserters strained vainly at their leashes trying to run. The Seraphim activated the flamethrowers and the Guardsman were consumed in flaming napalm, crying they fell to the ground, their screams lifting the smell of their burning skin farther into the air. They began to shrivel in the dirt, still screaming though unrecognizably human. 

While the headless Commissar stood by, praising the divine scent of the fumes. 

It is only a dream. 

He was a little kid running through the corridors of the under-hive now, sucking in the luke-warm recycled air. But there were no thugs. No gangers. 

Lictors stalked behind every doorway. 

Struggling to slow his breath, Jak peaked around the corner. Nothing. The coast was clear. 

A sound behind him... 

PAIN 

Jak woke up with a start, his body covered in sweat. 

It was only a dream. 

The night was now darker, Tentrynon's half dozen moons having set, and Pliken still sat on a large rock at the cave entrance, where the faint starlight trickled in, lasgun at ready. 

Jak turned over, but decided to give up the charade. He wouldn't be able to sleep. 

Yawning he went over to his bundle and picked out his four salvaged lasguns and started to disassemble them. They were basically the same as the schematics on the ships had said. 

Most of the gun was simply a tube for channeling the lasbeam and concentrating it. Barely thinking about it, Jak stripped the four guns apart taking the coolants, power pack inputs, transformers and lasgenerators, and began to put them in one pile, separating them from the chassi, capacitors, and refractor crystals. 

He began reassembling it, after a fashion. He put the four power inputs together, and brought all the wires into a single lasgenerator. The lasgenerator itself he took a look inside. He had little or no clue how it worked, but he could tell the wires would melt if he put more power through them. Jak welded parts from the other lasgenerators into it with his own lasgun, to fortify. 

After continuing like this for a while Jak glanced up. "Hey, Pliken, how's it..." 

Pliken glared at Jak angrily a finger raised to his lips, and pointed outside the cave. Moving slowly Jak approached the cave entrance until he saw something that made him freeze where he was, and made his blood run cold. 

A spore mine on the hill below the cave entrance. 

Spore Mines were seeking bombs. They were blind, but they could smell your breath, hear your movement, and feel your warmth. The "Guardsman's Guide" recommending 1) Not breathing 2) Not moving 3) Finding a thermal energy source to mask your own body-heat. Which was fine except for the fact that point two and three were contradictory and point one was impossible. 

The spore mine hovered lazily above the grounding, and slowly, began to float towards the cave. 

Jak looked at Pliken, who looked back. Pliken had said he'd been on tour against Tyranids once. He knew how toast they were; trying to shoot it down was suicide, it would cover the distance in a quarter of a second if it thought it was under attack. 

Retreating into the cave was equally suicidal, it would simply follow them in and kill them all in a single blast. 

Pliken stared at Jak for a while, before nodding and giving a small bitter smile. 

Slowly, but purposefully Pliken began to walk out of the cave, on to the rocky slope. The spore mine began to follow him. 

Gasping quietly Jak let go of the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. 

He stood frozen until after both Pliken and the Spore Mine had disappeared from sight, and a few minutes longer, until he heard an explosion faint with the distance. 

Slowly Jak sat down on the rock that Pliken had used as look-out, continuing to work on his lasconstruct, glancing up occasionally to scan the valley. 

Soon the light of Tentrynon's first Sun poured over the tips of the hills casting long shadows. 


End file.
